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              <h1>Boost Background Information</h1>
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              <h2>Why should an organization use Boost?</h2>

              <p>In a word, <em>Productivity</em>. Use of high-quality
              libraries like Boost speeds initial development, results in
              fewer bugs, reduces reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cuts
              long-term maintenance costs. And since Boost libraries tend to
              become de facto or de jure standards, many programmers are
              already familiar with them.</p>

              <p>Ten of the Boost libraries are included in the <a href=
              "http://open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/library_technical_report.html"
              class="external">C++ Standard Library's TR1</a>, and so are
              slated for later full standardization. More Boost libraries are
              in the pipeline for <a href=
              "http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2005/n1810.html"
              class="external">TR2</a>. Using Boost libraries gives an
              organization a head-start in adopting new technologies.</p>

              <p>Many organization already use programs implemented with
              Boost, like Adobe <a href=
              "http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html" class=
              "external">Acrobat Reader 7.0</a>.</p>

              <h2>Who else is using Boost?</h2>

              <p>See the <a href="/users/uses.html">Who's Using Boost
              page</a> for a sampling. We don't know the exact numbers, but a
              release gets around 100,000 downloads from SourceForge, and
              that is only one of several distribution routes.</p>

              <h2>What do others say about Boost?</h2>

              <blockquote>
                <p>"...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed
                C++ library projects in the world."<br />
                &mdash; <cite><a href="http://www.gotw.ca/" class=
                "external">Herb Sutter</a> and <a href=
                "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Alexandrescu" class=
                "external">Andrei Alexandrescu</a>, <a href=
                "http://safari.awprofessional.com/?XmlId=0321113586" class=
                "external">C++ Coding Standards</a></cite></p>
              </blockquote>

              <blockquote>
                <p>"Item 55: Familiarize yourself with Boost."<br />
                &mdash; <cite><a href="http://www.aristeia.com/" class=
                "external">Scott Meyers</a>, <a href=
                "http://my.safaribooksonline.com/0321334876" class=
                "external">Effective C++, 3rd Ed.</a></cite></p>
              </blockquote>

              <blockquote>
                <p>"The obvious solution for most programmers is to use a
                library that provides an elegant and efficient platform
                independent to needed services. Examples are BOOST..."<br />
                &mdash; <cite><a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/"
                class="external">Bjarne Stroustrup</a>, <a href=
                "http://www.research.att.com/~bs/abstraction.pdf" class=
                "external">Abstraction, libraries, and efficiency in
                C++</a></cite></p>
              </blockquote>

              <h2>How do users get support?</h2>

              <p>For relatively straightforward support needs, users rely on
              the <a href="/community/groups.html">mailing lists</a>. One of
              the advantages of Boost is the responsiveness of other users
              and Boost developers.</p>

              <h2>What about license issues?</h2>

              <p>Boost has its own <a href="license.html">license</a>,
              developed with help from the Harvard Law School. The <a href=
              "license.html">Boost license polices</a> encourage both
              commercial and non-commercial use, and the Boost license is not
              related to the GPL or other licenses - that are sometimes seen
              as business unfriendly.</p>

              <h2>What about other intellectual property issues?</h2>

              <p>The Boost libraries tend to be new, fresh, and creative
              designs. They are not copies, clones, or derivations of
              proprietary libraries. Boost has a firm policy to respect the
              IP rights of others. The development of Boost libraries is
              publicly documented via the mailing lists and version control
              repository. The source code has been inspected by many, many
              knowledgeable programmers. Each Boost file has a copyright
              notice and license information. IP issues have been reviewed by
              the legal teams from some of the corporations which use Boost,
              and in some cases these lawyers have been kind enough to give
              Boost feedback on IP issues. There are no guarantees, but those
              factors all tend to reduce IP risk.</p>

              <h2>Why would anyone give away valuable software for free?</h2>

              <p>Businesses and other organizations often prefer to have code
              developed, maintained, and improved in the open source
              community when it does not contain technology specific to their
              application domain, because it allows them to focus more
              development resources on their core business.</p>

              <p>Individuals contribute for the technical challenge, to hone
              their technical skills, for the sense of community, as part of
              their graduate school programs, as a way around geographic
              isolation, to enhance their employment opportunities, and as
              advertisements for their consulting services. There are
              probably as many reasons as there are individuals. Some of the
              apparently individual contributions come from employees of
              support companies with contracts from businesses or other
              organizations who have an interest in seeing that a library is
              well-maintained.</p>

              <h2>Who pays Boost's expenses?</h2>

              <p>Boost doesn't really have any expenses! All the
              infrastructure is contributed by supporters, such as the
              <a href="http://www.osl.iu.edu/" class="external">Open Systems
              Lab</a> at Indiana University, <a href=
              "http://sourceforge.net/" class="external">SourceForge</a>,
              <a href="http://www.boost-consulting.com/" class=
              "external">Boost Consulting</a>, <a href=
              "http://www.meta-comm.com/" class=
              "external">MetaCommunications</a>, and the individuals,
              companies, and other organizations who run the regression
              tests. Borland, HP, Intel, and Microsoft have contributed
              compilers. And hundreds, or even thousands, of programmers
              contribute their time. That's what makes Boost possible.</p>
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